Arts, Crafts, Needlework July, '08

[greenqueen]

Hi, The quilting projects sound fascinating and so creative. I've never quilted, except for (sort of) once. I was a young mother. I took 12" squares of material in solids and prints. I used machine embroidery designs on each square. I sewed them together. I added a sheet of fiberfill between a white thin thermal blanket. I sewed them together and tied little yarn bows. It was for my toddler DD. It's a very amateurish way of "quilting", but she loved it for several years. It became the sunbathing blanket for her and the dog inherited it when it frayed. LOL! I admire real quilters.

Take care,
greenqueen

[Harriet]

As we bring over all our Links/About pages to the new site, we're double-checking them for accuracy. Under "About Creative Home", I've just been able to add new information to the Quilter's TV link. They have made their site more convenient with "viewer's choice" of any program airing that day, any time. Much better than waiting all day for the one you needed.

greenqueen, tied quits can be great. I have never felt confident that my ties would stand the test of time, but others sure have. I've read about a technique of "tacking" by machine just here and there over a quilt, using small machine embroidery designs each time and not bothering to cut threads until you are through.

[Lisa B.]

Harriet, I have been using the scant 1/4" seam on all my squares so far.

Did you have another website that I could look at which explains with ease how to quilt.

Also, where can I find the heart quilt you are making?

I wouldn't want to machine bind either......looking at some quilts I can see the difference......I am using Moda and Benartex fabrics at present. I have read up on these two types and am quite impressed with the quality (I have felt and looked at them).....just don't know about the reds yet as to whether they run or not as I haven't got any yet.

Do you pre-wash all your fabrics first? There seems to me to be a great debate over this.....some say to do so and other say not.......some blocks allow for small amount of shrinkage should fabric be pre-washed.

The one golden rule I have, is to wash my hands before touching any fabric......this is a throwback from cross-stitching as natural oils tend get on the embroidery threads and fabrics from your hands......maybe not noticeable at first, but after a while you can see small discolourations (stains) from people who don't wash their hands and use hand creams. Not a good sign.......So I always wash my hands first and even after finishing with my stitching, before putting hand cream on.

DH has promised to take me back to the quilting shop after pay day for a few more fat quarters, but I would like to start purchasing the fabric by the meter (yard) so that I can build up a small stash of a few colours for now.

I am also looking into purchasing a book.......maybe one that uses F/Q's as one can get quite a bit out of one FQ.

[Harriet]

I prewash reds and darks. Also baby quilt fabrics unless they are barely used in the quilt. For instance, I used a faint yellow and white backing for baby niece's quilt but still prewashed thinking of the fragile little face it might touch! (could be unnecessary, but... ...) Sometimes if I purchase a fabric that seems to have a lot of stiffness or dye-odor (and usually that happens at places other than quilt shops) I'll prewash it. It's true what they say about cheap fabric. I noticed fading on one fabric in a quilt today and remembered I'd questioned that fabric's quality when I bought it - should have listened to myself.

I thought of quiltmakers here when I glanced through the videos at Quilter's TV (talked about it above). Tomorrow, Monday, they are showing a demonstration on how to rotary cut, and with their site's changes it can be watched any time you click on it. I haven't seen it, of course, but I'm thinking that seeing someone actually teaching rotary cutting "in person" could be very helpful.

Lisa, I've never seen a better "how to make a quilt" website than the one you found.

SuzLew and I discussed the heart quilt last month (June) in The Creative Home on the previous site, Lisa, when I had posted a picture of the finished top. I can't find the pattern anywhere on the net.

[Lisa B.]

Ladies,

Has any of you heard of Brenda Henning in the quilting world.

I watched her on quilters tv showing how to do perfect triangles......She has a dvd disc on her website to purchased which has loads of different sizes for paper piecing the triangles for $27.95....not sure whether this is Canadian Dollars or US? If anyone knows, please let me know. I also will have to put this DVD on my wishlist for things as I don't have a credit card. Thank you.

Here is her website:

http://www.bearpawproductions.com (sorry, couldn't get the URL thingy to work....please copy and paste).

[Harriet]

I haven't known Henning's name before seeing it on that site, but would think she means U.S.

i have seen free webpages out there that were paper pieced triangles. Would have to do a search.

I spent an hour hand-binding the quilt yesterday. Calm work. Another 2 hours at this pace or less if I get up a faster rhythm, and I'll be ready for the label. Actually, I was wondering if I'd like to catch the label in the bottom corner of the binding stitches, so maybe should prioritize that. Have saved (somewhere) snippets of the quilt's fabrics for the label.

[bittersweet]

The URL thingie worked fine, Lisa! Since I'm still at the utterly basic point of learning to cut fabric, I'm not sure I should be getting into triangles and hand-piecing things for another day or two..or week or two..

One nice thing about riding the bus to work and home every day is that it gives me some time to work on small crocheting projects. Even if I was further along in my quilting journey, I don't think I'd be comfortable taking small pieces of fabric and sharp needles on a public transit bus

[Harriet]

Here's one site for triangles to print
Triangle Papers

Triangle papers add the step of having to peel off the papers.

bittersweet, did you say you WILL have a way to learn rotary cutting (will you have the board, cutter, ruler?)? I would wait until you had time to learn that at home - don't try to spend time on that bus with quilt making right now. Too much hassle. Later when you have a small project that just needs a little hand-sewing you can do that. Otherwise, read your quilting books while riding or crochet. I did basket blocks for a while that were just simple pieced baskets but did have an appliqued handle. I could sew on the handles while riding somewhere. Some people add a lot of applique blocks in, just because they can do that on the go.

[bittersweet]

Yes, Harriet, I have a cutting mat, will be getting some rotary cutters from a friend who's pretty much given up quilting (and she has physical limitations that make it difficult for her to use the cutters now), and I'm not sure if she has any quilting rulers that she's willing to let go of...if not, I can always get some. I should make sure on that, cause the Yahoo quilting group I joined is doing a fat quarter swap this month, and I need to go get 4 blue ones of some kind or other. If dfriend doesn't have any rulers (although I suspect she does), I can always get a couple while at the quilting store. She has some books, too...and I have an only-opened-once copy of Quilting for Dummies at home. The group is awesome...they're teaching several of us newbies all the basics...what tools to get, how to use them, how to organize quilting stuff and projects, etc etc...

All I have to do is make some time! Now that I'm gone from the house almost 12 hours/day, it's going to be even trickier!

[Lisa B.]

Thank you Harriet for the link.

I'm going to save the templates.

Bittersweet, I'm also a beginner, but I tried to do triangles Brenda's way from her freebie on her site, and they work a charm.....but then I am using a machine. Can I ask why you are hand piecing? Isn't it time consuming to hand piece?

At the end of last month (June), I went out and bought a cutting mat which came free with an Olfa rotary cutter (mat is olfa too). I then bought a 6" x 12" ruler to begin with......I'm finding that I will need to get a larger ruler sometime in the near future. I have already cut my finger with the rotary, by being very silly indeed, fore-finger was too close to the blade when using it.....very silly me.....it's healed though. My DD10 says I have too many pairs of scissors, as I have about three sets for materials, including a pair of pinking shears.